Necva Ozgur

Executive Director, MERIT

Adjunct Faculty at Bayan Islamic Graduate School

Bayan Email: nozgur@bayanclaremont.org

Necva Ozgur is the founder and Executive Director of MERIT and the founding School Head of New Horizon School Pasadena, NHSP. Necva obtained an M.S. degree from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Istanbul and later, an M.A. degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in California, where she wrote her thesis on Strategies to Achieve Excellence in an Islamic School.

Necva played a pivotal role in establishing NHSP and lead the school to get its accreditation from WASC and CAIS. With the leadership of Necva and a skilled administrative team, NHSP earned the Blue Ribbon recognition from the Department of Education. Necva was also instrumental in launching New Horizon School Irvine and Minaret Academy in an advisory role.

Necva has served as a trustee of several non-profit organizations, including the New Horizon School Board, Islamic Center of Southern California Board, California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and Council of Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE), and was a member of The Non-Profit Executive Forum and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Necva is currently serving on the Islamic Society of North America’s (ISNA) Education Forum and the Counsel of Islamic Schools of North America (CISNA) board as vice-chair. She previously chaired the Education Council of Islamic Center of Southern California, and the Board of Bayan.

After serving NHSP for twelve years, Necva established a resource center called MERIT, Muslim Educators, Resource, Information and Training Center in 2005. MERIT promotes excellence in American Muslim schools and empowers Muslim educational leaders. This organization plays a vital role in providing professional growth opportunities for boards of directors, administrators, and faculty, and it develops professional and educational resources and provides networking opportunities for Muslim Educators.

Necva is currently providing Islamic schools with board training, principal coaching, accreditation, school establishment, development and evaluation and consulting. She has been part of many school accreditation and chaired accreditation teams on behalf of different accrediting agencies. Currently, she is chairing a committee for a pioneer project

 of developing Islamic school standards for joint accreditation with AdvancED. Necva was invited two years in a row by the US State Department to travel to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to provide workshops on “How to Raise Public Awareness Campaign,” “Social Marketing,” “Parenting,” “Volunteer Management,” “Leadership Training” and more.

Necva also developed an adult education program for the Islamic Center of Southern California, which is called the Academy of Islamic Thought (AIT) www.academyofislamicthought.org.